Thursday, December 01, 2011

Countdown to Crossover Part 1: The idea

It might have been during the late 80's reading Marvel UK titles like Death's Head, Dragons Claws, Transformers and Action Force.

It might have been back in the early 90's when I walked into the Warner Brothers store in Kingston and they were playing The Batman Adventures on the big screen.

It might have been when BBC radio 1 transmitted the audio dramas of Knightfall and the Death of Superman.

It might have been when I found They Walk Among Us, a fantastic comic shop in Richmond where I bought my first DC comics and ultimately ended up working, some 10 years later, after I left GW.

It's more likely to have started when I discovered the supersystem rules and decided these were exactly what I needed to scratch an itch I didn't even know I had had.

There is a strong chance that it really became an idea once I started sculpting my own superhero miniatures and posting them on the LAF superhero boards.

I know when I stopped being an idea and started to become a reality though. Fergal, fellow poster to the Lead Adventures forum, contacted me and asked if I was interested in sculpting a range of superheroes. I asked him if bears were Catholic and the Pope shits in the woods, damn right I was interested! We both seemed to be on exactly the same wavelength and were finishing each others sentences before the end of our first phone call. It felt a bit like what I imagine the relationship is like between a writer and his artist on a comic book. Russell, for that is Fegal's secret identity (although not so much now I fear), had loads of ideas for characters and I took inspiration from his descriptions and turned them into something we both liked the look of. Suddenly it was real and we both got all exited, manly and reserved naturally, but still excited.

So I suppose that is were it started really. Of course it wasn't Crossover then, it was just the idea. Work has gone on behind the scenes and soon with a bit of luck and some support from the gaming community it may even become a reality. The countdown to Crossover has begun. Watch this space.